it's not necessity, it's strategy.
GE loves to manipulate its stock, we've all seen that. moving a 150M float is pretty damn difficult. do a reverse split, end up with a 12M float, and everything changes.
DRYS ran to 115 on a, what was it, 1M float? GE will reverse split not because he has to from Nasdaq, but because he wants to to pull the same trick again. cut the float down, and then increase it again by issuing new shares, same old story.